


twelve incidents in a masterplan

by deepandlovelydark



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Angst, Canon Era, Temporal Paradox, Time War, the sigil for a long-awaited accretion, unmarked spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-15 23:33:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15424080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deepandlovelydark/pseuds/deepandlovelydark
Summary: the time war in his day is cold, and subtle, and hides itself in the gaps between adventuresshort and highly continuity-laden





	twelve incidents in a masterplan

1.  _…to be avoided at all costs. For a regeneration to take place in a foe’s company would doubtless induce a sense of vulnerability and inferiority, lasting through the career of the incarnation, if not longer - “A Guide to Discontinuity”_

More fools they. It’ll do him good to remember he’s not indestructible, and that as he weaves his plans, so too do his enemies. 

“I could have stopped the whole war with that manipulator,” the Rani snaps. He can’t very well disagree. 

* * *

2. “So what war did everyone go off to fight?” 

Silly, jovial Melanie, of all people, shouldn’t be piecing together the answers this quickly; he chokes on the reply.

Well, then. She’ll just have to go all the sooner. 

* * *

3\. Strictly speaking, the Bannermen are on their side. 

Which is why he must needs go to such lengths, to remedy their depredations. 

* * *

4\. There’s no place like a port in a storm, and he might need the _Nosferatu_ one of these days. Glitz’s era is a curiously warped point in spacetime. 

That one can’t even be blamed on the Daleks.

* * *

5.  _Remembrance Sunday._

The nicety of the irony is lost on no one attending Mike’s funeral. 

* * *

6\. To train Ace; to see that a certain blood-soaked roboticist will escape justice and show up where history requires; to check that he’s still capable of improvising on the fly. 

“I can hear the sound of empires toppling,” he says, and decides he’s satisfied with the night’s work. 

* * *

7. “Black wins,” the Doctor says cheerfully, and carries through the plan even though it’s almost entirely pointless now. Fenric has flipped the board round; a statue in place of a remote stellar manipulator, Nazis instead of homegrown British fascists. Cybermen for Daleks, and so much for his clever ploys. 

There isn’t even an opportunity to say “unlimited rice pudding” this time. Shame. 

* * *

8\. Kingpin takes the unimpressive bit of metal, reverently. “Whose was it?”

“I don’t know yet. I will later…”

* * *

9. “…become Merlin?”

“No doubt you’ll be wonderful at it,” the Brigadier says, with his usual gruff good nature; and the Doctor lets himself relax, this time. In a change war, it is such a comfort to have a few still points. 

* * *

10\. When provoked- when suitably pushed and prodded, fired and wrought- individuals of even quite mundane species can develop time sensitivity. 

“I’d swear, it was like I could see and hear the sirens,” Ace says afterwards; and he can hardly contain his pride. 

* * *

11\. …which turns out to be a problem later, when she’s capable of holding off the Ancient One single-handedly. 

He has to explain it all to her, afterwards, why it was that vital to break her faith; her response is to gripe about her mother and go diving into the sea. 

There are days when humans really are completely beyond him. 

* * *

12\. Nobody had thought the Master would be genuinely trying to help; that his avowed intention of finding a place, a species, a way of being safe that no Time War could ever penetrate, would be the slightest use whatsoever. 

Stumbling through the desert, tasting blood on the wind, the Doctor can’t help suspecting that he still hasn’t. 


End file.
